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Project to improve Boone’s skate park gets green light

Mackentyre Musfeldt, 19, of Boone, does an Early Grab 180 at Boone’s skate park in McHose Park Tuesday afternoon. A proposal to paint the jumps with art work and make other improvements at the skate park has been approved by the Boone Park Commission. Photo by Jon Lloyd

Their enthusiastic, comprehensive Skate Park Proposal - which fills one side of a sheet of 8x11-inch paper, single spaced – already has tons of support from some of the children and young adults who skate and skateboard there. More important, the two mothers received permission from the Boone Park Commission Monday night to go ahead with their spirited plan.

Here’s the heart of it: paint over the graffiti and obscene paintings on the backstop of the 5-foot-high quarter pipe; decorate the ramps, quarter- and half-pipes and kickers with art work; put up lights and install a new entry sign; offer rewards for reporting vandalism; and create a sense of ownership, or peer pressure, to protect the art work and the skate park.

With the first step of the plan – painting over the graffiti and obscene drawings – done, McClain said they would like to mark the cracks in the cement “so the newer kids would not hit their edges.”

“They’d like new ramps,” she said of the boarders. “We’d love to see this as an ongoing project. Maybe establish a Boone County skating club with adult supervision, get more equipment for the things they would love to have.”

McClain’s 13-year-old daughter, Jaycee, a regular roller skater and boarder at the park, came up with the idea for the improvements.

“She asked me if we could paint over some of the graffiti,” McClain said. “I told her we would first have to get permission.”

An Ogden resident, McClain got a positive response from a few teenage boarders whom she told about the project.

“They were very excited that we were going to fix it and would be happy to lend a hand,” she said.

She also shared the project idea with some of the young adults who use the park.

“They said, ‘We’re in.’ They want to come and make it better,” she said.

When Fox, who lives near McHose, told her son, Albert Ady, a 9-year-old in-line skater, about the park board’s approval of the project, she got “a huge high five and he immediately started rattling off ideas.”

During a walk-through of the skate park a few weeks ago, they told a few young boarders about their project for improving it.

“They were so grateful that someone was noticing them and validating their sport,” Fox said. “They had tons of excellent ideas for improvement. With their help and positive energy, the project will be successful and so much fun.”

Tuesday afternoon, two 19-year-old Boone boarders, Jacob Sheldahl and Mackentyre Musfeldt, were doing some tricks at the skate park, which was built in 2005.

Sheldahl liked Fox and McClain’s plan.

“That’s a good idea,” he said, adding that boarding and skating in the park “is something to do in the area, a place for people to hang out. I bring my younger brother (Cody, 8) here, and he doesn’t need to see nude photos.”

“I’ve been skating here ever since they built it,” Musfeldt said. “That’s a great idea. Awesome.”

One of the skate park’s rules posted on the entrance sign is “No bicycles,” although the word “No” has been blotted out. Musfeldt said that he and fellow boarders try to enforce it.

“And we try to keep it clean,” he said. “We’ll pick up any trash that’s around. This is the best cement in town that you can ride your board on.”

Several times after the sun has set and darkness enveloped the skate park, Musfeldt and friends have used their car or trucks’ headlights to illuminate it. When told of the proposal to add lights, he said he would like to see two up high in corners opposite each other.

Their current goal is to raise $400 to pay for the paint and supplies. McClain said she is awaiting word from the Boone Parks Foundation for permission to route donations through it so they could be tax deductible.

Two working artists, Iowa State University graduates, would volunteer their time and talent to paint the skate park’s ramps and other jumps, McClain said, adding the parks board or city parks staff members would first approve the proposed artwork. The proposal states the artwork would not be offensive to gender, race, religion or community.

“The paintings could be abstract with a skating theme,” she said. “Or maybe something like Kandinsky or Picasso. It would be age-appropriate and make people feel welcome. There are lots of ideas floating around. In the end, people will bring their ideas to the table.”

A work day for painting and cleanup has not yet been selected, McClain said, adding it could be in August or a Saturday after Pufferbilly Days in September.

“Our biggest goal is to get users in the skate park involved in doing this, in some of the painting and the hands-on work,” she said, adding that research has shown that when children and young adults get involved in a project, the more they “make it their own.”

“It lessens the probability of damage, vandalism or graffiti,” she said. “There is more peer pressure to preserve the space.”

“This is for the skaters, for who they are,” McClain added. “That’s a big part of it.”